Counting device



Nov. 15, 1932. J ousso 1,887,788

COUNTING DEVICE Filed Jan. 16, 1929 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Gib WZ'fimeaaza; 224? as fau 550,

Patented Nov. 15, 1932 PATENT OFFICE JACQUES ROUSSO, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA COUNTING DEVICE Application filed January 16, 1929. Serial No. 332,849.

This invention relates to counting devices and more particularly to an improved mechanism for counting towels and bundling them in predetermined quantities.

In the servicing of towels great quantities are used daily, said towels being delivered in bundles, and according to a common practice being grommeted and strung together for use. Owing to the volume of business, errors in over-counting the respective bundles entail quite a loss to the distributor, and for that reason mechanical devices have been employed in the counting of the towels so as to eliminate such losses.

The present invention has for its objects to improve generally upon devices of the character described; to simplify the construction and manipulation of such devices; to secure a positive action of the mechanism; and to attain certain advantages as will more fully appear in the following description.

The invention consists in the parts and in the combinations and arrangements of parts as described and pointed out with particularity in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings forming part of this specification and illustrating a practical embodiment of the invention, Fig. 1 is a top plan view and partial horizontal section of the device;

2 is a. vertical section on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary view, on an enlarged scale, said view being taken on the line of section 33 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a vertical section on the line 4-4; of Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary section on the line 55 of F ig- 1; and

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary view showing a modification of the actuating mechanism.

Referring now to the drawings, the device therein shown comprises a base plate 10 which in use is mounted upon a work table 11. At one side of the base plate 10 is a housing 12 for the counting mechanism, to be present- 1y described, one wall of said housing constituting a face plate or abutment 13 for locating the towels in piling them into a bundle on the work table.

Detachably mounted in a socket 14 on the base plate 10, and in cooperative relation to the Wall or face plate 13 of the housing 12 is a post or guide rod 15, in the upper end portion of which is preferably provided an axial socket 16.

Journaled in bracket members 17 and 18 secured in the upper portion of the housing 12 is a stub shaft 19, which, in the preferred structure, has fixedly secured thereon a hub member 20 from which radiate four arms 21 constituting a star wheel or detent operating through a vertically elongated slot 22 in the abutment wall or face plate 13. Said bracket members 17 and 18, as shown, are located one on either side of the slot 22 and they are provided with wing portions 17 and 18, respectively, to provide guards so as to prevent tampering with the mechanism of the device by the insertion of an instrument through said slot.

Said shaft 19 also has a bearing in the portion 23 of a bracket or supporting element 24 which is secured on the inner face of the abutment wall or face plate 13 of the housing 12. Secured on the shaft 19 is a pinion 25 which meshes with a like gear 26 on the end portion of countershaft 27 which is journaled in the bearing portion 23 of the bracket member 24 and has on its end a cam disk 28. Said cam d sk 28 has a ramp or inclined operating portion 29 for each of the radial arms 21 on the star wheel or detent, there being in this particular instance four of said arms 21 and a corresponding number of the correlated cam portions 29.

Slidably mounted, so as to reciprocate longitudinally, in bearing portions 30 and 31 of the bracket 24:, is a rod 32 having a collar thereon, between which latter and the bearing portion 31 is interposed a spring 34 which normally presses said collar against the hear ing portion 30 and projects the end portion 32 of said rod 32 into working relation to sa d cam member 28 on the counter-shaft 27. Pivotally mounted, as at 35, on the opposite end portion of said rod 32, is a pawl 36 which is normally pressed into engagement with a ratchet wheel 37 by a spring 38. The pe- 100 ripheral teeth of said ratchet wheel 37 and the cam portions 29 are so proportioned and correlated that the ratchet wheel is moved the distance of cone tooth for each reciprocation of the rod 32 as the latter is successively moved by the cam portions 29 when the member 28 is rotated.

The ratchet wheel 37 is journaled on a bracket plate 39 on the abutment wall or face plate 13 and cooperating therewith is a spring-pressed dog 40 which engages the peripheral teeth so as to prevent backward movement of the ratchet wheel when the reciprocatory rod 32 recedes from its driving stroke with respect to said ratchet wheel- In practice, the ratchet wheel 37 will be provided with a number of peripheral teeth corresponding to the number of towels to be counted. For example, as the towels are usually bundled in lots of fifty and for which the present invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, said ratchet wheel has, of course, fifty teeth.

In the operation of the device, as thus far described, the towels are placed by the operator one at a time in a pile upon the base plate and in proximity to the abutment wall or face plate 13, and in doing so the operator should hold the towel near the marginal portion which is to be brought into proximity with the abutment wall or face plate 13 and in so doing pass a finger or portion of the hand into contact with the projecting arm 21 of the star wheel and thereby rotate the shaft 19 substantially a quarter turn. As the shaft 19 rotates the counter-shaft 27 is correspondingly rotated owing to the engagement of the gear 26 thereon with the gear 25 on said shaft 19, and whereby the member 28 is correspondingly rotated and one of its cam portions 29 rides in engagement with the rod 32 and moves the latter endwise and thereby causes the ratchet wheel 37 to move the distance of one tooth. This actuation occurs as each towel is added to the pile, and, of course, when the fiftieth towel is deposited on the pile, said ratchet wheel has made one complete revolution.

In the case of towels provided with eyelets or grommets they are threaded over, the post 15, and in doing so the operator conveniently moves one finger between said post and the abutment wall or face plate 13, bringing the finger into engagement with the projecting arm 21 of the star wheel or actuator, thereby completing a positive actuation of the latter. In cases where the device is used for counting towels not provided with the eyelets or grommets the post 15 is removed from the socket 14 and the abutment wall or face plate 13 is alone depended upon for locating the respective towels as they are piled for bundling. The finger or some portion of the hand is, of course, brought into operable engagement with the projecting arm21 of the star wheel or actuator,

In order to relieve the operator of mentally counting the towels as they-are deposited on the pile a locking device is preferably provided, as shown, whereby the actuator wheel 20 is prevented from further rotation until said locking device is released, so that it is practically impossible to add another towel to the pile until such release of the locking mechanism is effected, as will be presently described.

As shown, the ratchet wheel 37 has secured on its face a disk 41 which has a peripheral notch 42 into which the angular end port-ion 43 of apivotal dog 44 engages, said dog 44 being yieldably held in engagement with said disk41 by spring 45 which is attached to a bracket extension 46 of said bearing member 23 of the bracket 24. Pivotally connected to said dog 44, as at 47, is a rod 48 which is extended through an aperture 49 in one of the end walls of said housing 12 and has on its outer end a knob or button 50.

Normally, at the zero or starting and end ing position of the ratchet wheel 37 the end portion 43 of said pivotal dog 44 is engaged in the notch 42 of said ratchet wheel, as shown in Fig. 2 of the drawings. To begin counting the towels the operator first presses the button 50, thereby releasing the dog 44 from its engagement with the disk 41, and while holding said dog thus disengaged passes the first towel onto the post 15, in the case of a towel having an eyelet or grommet, or, by passing it in close proximity to the abutment wall or face plate 13, and thereby actuating the actuator or star wheel 20 and, through the connected mechanism, in turn actuating the ratchet wheel 37 and moving it one notch, from which time on, until the ratchet wheel has made acomplete revolution, said end portion 43 of the dog 44 rides on the peripheral face of said disk 41.

While it is desirable to have a rotating actuator 20 having the arms 21 rotating continuously in one direction this part of the de- T."

vice may be modified and have substituted therefor a ratchet mechanism as shown in Fig. 6, or some other suitable arrangement. In the modification illustrated in Fig. 6 a ratchet lever 51 is mounted loosely on the shaft 19 and is yieldably held in normalposition by a spring 52. On a rearward extensi on 53 of this lever arm 51 is a pawl 54 which engages a ratchet wheel 55 which is fixed on said shaft 19. Said lever arm 51, pawl 54 and ratchet wheel 55 are so proportioned that upon each depression of the lever. arm 51 shaft 19 is rotated one quarter turn, and the operation is the same as described in connection with the hereinbefore mentioned structure.

In counting towels provided with eyelets or grommets they are usually strung upon a rod or spindle when bundled, and, in order to facilitate the transfer from the post 15 to said rod or spindle the socket 16 in the end of said post is provided, as herein first described. In order to accomplish this transfer the post 15 with the pile of towels thereon is removed from the socket 14 and taken out of range of the locked actuator wheel 20 and the end of the spindle or rod onto which the towels are to be shifted is placed in the socket 16 and the towels then easily shifted from said post to the rod or spindle, after which the latter is removed from the socket 16 and the post 15 is again replaced in the socket 14 ready to receive another bundle of towels.

It is preferably to provide the device with an automatic registering mechanism 56 whose indicator wheels are visible through a sight opening 57 provided therefor in the top wall 58 of the casing 12. On the shaft 59 of this register 56 is secured a lever arm 60 which is held in working engagement with a crank pin 61 projecting from the side of the disk 41, by a spring 62 which is attached to the bracket extension 46. By this arrangement the lever arm 60 is oscillated once for each revolution of the ratchet wheel 37, thereby actuating the register 56 accordingly. It will thus be seen that the register 56 indicates the number of bundles rather than the individual towels but it is an easy matter to calculate the entire number of towels handled on the device as each bundle contains the same number of towels and that number may be multiplied by the number indicated on the register.

The essential operating parts of the mechanism are positive in action and it is to be particularly noted that the cam element 28, owing to a peculiar arrangement of its ramps 29 affording shoulders 29 at the ends thereof for engagement by the end portion 32 of the reciprocatory rod 32, the shaft 19 on which the hub 20 carrying the radial arms 21 is fixed is prevented from being reversely rotated and, of course, towels provided with eyelets or grommets which have been placed on the post 15 cannot be removed from the latter until it is detached from the socket 14 as hereinbefore described, owing to the close proximity of the end of the arm 21 to said post 15.

Obviously the device admits of considerable modification and structural alteration without in the least departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. It is therefore not limited to the arrangement shown in the accompanying drawings.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a counting device of the character described, a base plate having an abutment perpendicular thereto, a rotatable actuator on said abutment, said actuator comprising a plurality of radial arms successively projected beyond the working face of said abutment and being movable only in the direction of the base plate, a register including a ratchet wheel, a reciprocatory actuator for said ratchet wheel, a rotating cam for operating said reciprocatory actuator, said rotating cam being operated by said first mentioned rotatable actuator and cooperating with said reciprocatory actuator to afford a lock for preventing reverse actuation of said first mentioned rotatable actuator, and means for automatically locking said ratchet wheel against rotation in either direction after a predetermined number of operations thereof and thereby preventing further operation of said reciprocatory actuator, rotating cam and first mentioned rotatable actuator, said last named locking means having provision for effecting its release manually.

2. In a counting device of the character described, a supporting base, an upstanding housing on said supporting base, one wall of said housing constituting a face plate for locating articles, such as towels, and the like to be counted, in a pile on said supporting base, counting mechanism within said housing comprising a ratchet wheel, a rotatable actuator geared positively to actuate said counting mechanism, said rotatable actuator having radial arms successively projecting beyond the working face of said face plate wall of said housing.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

JACQUES ROUSSO. 

